You and my husband can commiserate.
After being awake for 34 hours, in back labor for 8 and induced labor for another 7, I was cursing at everyone during contractions - including him.
As soon as my son cleared my body and I heard him cry out, the pain stopped. The most overwhelming wave of love crashed over me and I transformed into a delightful, obedient angel for everyone in the room. I happily pushed out the afterbirth, shifting and moving as instructed, and didn’t make a sound while they stitched up my episiotomy.
Alongside me, my husband was choking back tears.
A few moments after they placed my son in my arms, his beautiful, squashed face open for everyone to see, I looked up at husband and stated, “When can we have another one?”
His look of response was a mixture of incredulity and mortification.
What a trooper my husband was. Even after the hell I put him through, he still gave me a few more.
Such a sweet story to hear! After our first one my wife and I got into playing UNO during the second one between contractions. UNO alone is enough to get her cursing me, then add contractions to the mix and it got pretty stormy. I remember some of the looks and words I got when I followed up more than a few contractions with “so...I think it’s your turn...” I can’t recall, but I bet I held onto a few “draw 4s” and “skips” that I probably could have played.
My second baby was 4 weeks premature and 7 lbs. My first was 2 or 3 weeks late and 9 lbs., after an epidural, a 13 hour labor and forceps. With the second one, labor was fast and they had me in delivery before husband could get the car parked and his gown on. So there I was, pushing after they gave me paracervical anesthesia, but without much enthusiasm, and flat on my back. He came bursting into the delivery room, the nurse following still trying to tie on his gown. I was so relieved. I shouted “Get over her and lift my shoulders so I can get my back into the pushes. So he helped me get my torso into a 45 degree slant, and 3 pushes later the baby was out, and crying. So I think for some of us at least partial elevation can help the push. What they did NOT tell me was to get a cold pack to put on my tired bruised vaginal area to help reduce swelling and bruising. Remember that one, it will save the women in your lives days of misery when trying to sit up.